, 1887-04-02
BEECIIER'S ORATORY.
A LITTLE DRAMA WITH ITS SlTUA-
TlONS AND OENOUEMENT.

scene at n Mass Meeting In Tripier Hall.
a Trick In Oratory-The Inspiration of
tho Observation-Disclosures Speech.
Years ago, when l was quite n boy,
there was a great disturbance in this city
over the Five Points, which at that time
was the most disgraceful cesspool OF in
Equity on the face of the earth. The au-
thorities either would not or could not do
anything for its regeneration. Under the
lash Of public agitation the women of
New York came together and organized
what was called the Ladies' Home Mis-
~sionary society, nj called a series of mass
meetings in Tripler hall, an enormous
building on Broadway that had been
erected In anticipation of the ar
rival of Jenny Lind. These mass meet
ings were unique. l him they took
place on Saturday nights. Never before
had 30 many ''big guns" been brought to-
gether on the platform n the ladies
gathered for these meetings. Half hour
addresses were made by all the most
eloquent orators of the American pulpit,
irrespective of denomination, and the great
hall was regularly packed to the doorways.
On one occasion l remember Cheever
Cuyler, the lamented DR.. Foster, of the
Methodist church, and n score of others,
including Henry Ward Beecher, were
announced. And the Hutchinson family
and the A~lleghnnians were to sing. The
speakers were all on their mettle, for they
were pitted against each other in n good
cause. My recollection IL that DR.. Foster
tainted from excessive emotion, after one
Of the most startling appeals l ever heard.
AN IMAGINARY DIALOGUE.
Somewhere in the course of the evening
Henry Ward Beecher was introduced. He
was then in the full flower of enthusiasm
and far more clerical In cut than when in
his maturity. Instead OF taking the center
of the platform, as all the preceding
speakers had done, he walked to the ex-
treme end and began an imaginary dia-
logue in which a politician took part. He
asked him all kinds Of questions as to the
proper way to rcgenerate the Five Points
and got all kinds of absurd and evasive
replies. When he had exhausted the ig-
norance and Indifference of this function
airy he walked to the other end of the
platform, and, with both hands extended
and body bent over, as If looking into q
hole, he said; 1--WE lay you down there for
so muchip
Then back across the width OF the plat
form to begin another conversation with
a physician. The whole character of the
dialogue changed instantly. The new
man spoke in u new vein. He had gases
and therapeutics at his finger ends. He
would regenerate the Five Points with a
six foot sewer and chloride of lime. He
was visionary, technical and wholly mad
equate, and he was carried over and
placed In the same hole ''for SO much"
Then the sane process was gone
through with an osaitor and a philosopher
and an engineer. and by this time tho
vast assemblage was worked up to q
pitch Of intense ex pectation and suspense.
The one dominant ~interrogative emo
ton was-"Who will do this things''
TRICK OF oRAToRY.
Never have forgotten the effect pro-
duced when the speaker took the middle
of the stage for his peroration and said:
''Nov Wen take down the Christian
women of New York.
And they seemed to US to sweep down
like Valkyrle with flaming swords.
Boy as | was l knew, as soon as l got
away from the magnetic influence Of the
speaker, that this was u trick Of oratory
In which the method Of the playwright
had been employed. We had been listen
ing to a little drama, with its well defined
dramatis PERSONA, its situations, its five
nets, with Il curtain, and its final denoue-
ment.
Years a~fterwar6, standing there on his
lawn under one Of the trees he had him
self planted, trying to recall in tho ruddy,
white haired man at my side the eager,
impassioned, somewhat gaunt and IRE
ststibly earnest speaker who had made
such an impression O my young mind, l
reminded him of the scene in Tripler hall
and asked him If he had planned that
effect beforehand or left 1t to the sugges-
ton of the moment
His recollection wen that it had &C.
Cured TO him just before he appeared on
tho platform. He assured mo that all his
best results in oratory were due to the In
spiration of the moment.
And then he told me how on one occa-
sion he was making an anti slavery speech
at the old Broadway Tabernacle and there
had been left there by Arthur Tappan or
somebody else q chain thet had been worn
In the south by u slave. In my closing
appeal, said Mr.. Beecher, / saw the chain
for the first time, and going over l picked
1t up and throwing it down trampled upon
1t as | finished. The effect was electrical,
but ii was unprecedented .-Nym Crinkle
In New York World.